Final Paddle of the Season

Yesterday we participated in our group's traditional Columbus Day paddle and picnic for the first time in years.  And the weather was such that it might be the last time for several more.  We put in on the Bog River at Lows Lower Dam in drizzly weather.  It was raining harder by the time we got to the take out point on Hitchins Pond but it eased up as we were eating.  We left soon after eating because we intended to pack the car in the afternoon, ready to head for NJ first thing today.  But it really poured while we were paddling back to the car.  So instead of packing the car, we started a fire in the wood stove and spread out our kayaking gear to dry so we could pack it.  We brought our kayaks and gear back to NJ with us, because we want to take them to Florida with us in January.  But we still got a good start this morning and had an uneventful trip home to NJ this afternoon.

Santanoni and Newcomb Lake

Today's paddle was unique in that it started with a wagon ride.


All the boats were loaded onto one wagon, the people into another, and the horses took us the five miles into great camp Santanoni on the shore of Newcomb Lake.  It was originally built in 1892-3 by Robert Pruyn, a prominent Albany banker and businessman.  It is now part of the forest preserve.

We paddled about 5 miles around the lake then had a bit of time to walk around the property before having to head back on the wagons.


The many buildings are linked by many porches.


After the adventure some of us stopped for dinner at the Adirondack Hotel in Long Lake.

Paddling/Walking Rollins, Floodwood, Fish Creek, Square Pond

We did one of our favorite paddles today.  We drove to Rollins Pond to put the boats in.  It was another beautiful, calm day, though with temps in the low 80's it was hotter than we would like.


We saw several loons.


When we reached the end of Rollins, the walking portion began.  The water was too low to make it through the stream into Floodwood in the boats.  But given the temperature, it was great to have an excuse to get out and wade.


Then on through Floodwood, down Fish Creek and Fish Creek Ponds, and through Square Pond to an empty campsite where we took the boats out after a paddle of about 8 miles.  We then walked half an hour back to Rollins to get the car and drove back to retrieve the boats.

Paddling Lake Lila

We had a beautiful paddle today.  It was such gorgeous weather, with bright blue skies and no wind, it was even worth the awful drive and the long carry to get to the Lake Lila put in.  The drive was as bad as we remembered - one half hour on a potholed, rocky road.  The carry wasn't too bad, especially when you take one boat at a time.  The reflections on the smooth water were great.

Paddling the 90-Miler

Well, not exactly.  We put our boats in at the home of friends along the route near the end of the race and paddled for a while and watched the racers.  There was an incredible variety as usual.  Then we went back to our friends' home for a nice visit.

Paddling Follensby Clear

The weather has finally changed - only a high of 70 degrees today, and much less humid.  To celebrate the beautiful weather, we went paddling today.  We put in at the southern parking area on Follensby Clear and paddled to the carry to Fish Creek.  We did the carry - taking one boat at a time was a painless way to do it.    Several green frogs were at the end of the carry.

Then we paddled down Fish Creek, through Fish Creek Ponds, up Spider Creek and back into Follensby Clear.  These gulls were resting at the side of one of the ponds.

We stopped at one of the many campsites on Follensby Clear for lunch then paddled around most of the lake, for a total paddling distance of just under 8 miles.

Paddling Cranberry Lake

It continues to be very hot and humid here so we have not been exercising outside very much.  The winds today were forecast to be "light and variable" so we left early this morning for a paddle on Cranberry Lake.  We put in at Wanakena as usual and assumed we were headed for Dead Creek Flow.  We stopped first at Black Duck Hole.  This beautiful view is looking back out of that bay.


We then decided it was too hot to do the entire paddle of 13-14 miles necessary to paddle to the end of the flow.  Instead, we explored the many islands shown at the upper right on the map, then paddled back to the car, for a total of about 10.5 miles.  That was enough in the heat.

Paddling Lower St Regis, Spitfire, and Upper St Regis Lakes

Today the group put in at Paul Smith's College, but at the swimming beach which was a much better spot than we had used before.  We paddled across Lower St Regis Lake, through Spitfire into Upper St Regis Lake.  We turned right and went into North Bay where I'd never been before.  We had lunch at the carry at the north end of the bay, then retraced our "steps" for a total of 9 1/2 miles.


There are many amazing great camps on these lakes.  One of the most spectacular is Camp Topridge on the western shore of North Bay, built in 1923 by Marjorie Merriweather Post.  This is just one of the Topridge boat houses with our group posed in front.


Since the lodgings tend to be hidden back in the woods, I concentrated on photos of boat houses.


This one has one of the wooden boats the lakes are famous for.

Paddling Middle Saranac Lake and Weller Pond

We had a great paddle this morning.  Thunderstorms were forecast for this afternoon, so we headed out early while it was still foggy.  Even though the overnight temperatures just got down into the mid-60's, it is so humid it does not take much drop in temperature to produce fog.  And the winds were light, so Middle Saranac Lake was really neat when we got there.


We had put in at South Creek, where the water is still very low.  W usually likes to put in at the dock, but not today.


In Middle Saranac we found the usual eagle on Ship Island.


Then we paddled into Weller Pond.  We didn't even attempt to get into Little Weller with the water so low.  We circumnavigated Weller, stopping for a snack at one of the campsites.


Then back through Middle Saranac where the winds were still light and back up South Creek, for a total of about 8 1/2 miles.


In addition to the eagle, we saw a great blue heron and MANY loons.  We have never seen so many taking off and flying and landing.  W decided Weller Pond must be the local take off and landing practice sites for young loons.  I tend to agree, given how incompetent some of them were.  We watched one attempt to take off three times before giving up.

Paddling the Saranac River

We had a rather damp paddle today.  We put in to the Saranac River at Pine Street in Saranac Lake.  We shuttled the cars to the bend in the river at the road into Moose Pond.  We planned to paddle to the footbridge to Moose Pond for lunch then on to the cars, for a total of about 9 miles.  The river is quite low and we had to avoid many sand bars.  The weather was iffy and it started to pour well before the footbridge.  We pulled under some trees to wait it out and most of us ate lunch there.  When it was evident it was going to rain for a while, we continued on our way.  It was warm so the rain really wasn't so bad though we did get soaked.  The sun was shining by the time we got out at a very muddy landing.  It apparently is a much better place to land when the water is higher.  Given the amount of road noise for most of the paddle, I sort of assumed this would be a one-time thing, but we were amazed at the amount of wildlife we saw: several great blue herons and osprey, two bald eagles, three turtles.

Paddling the Raquette River

We put in at Axton Landing and paddled to Raquette Falls and back again for a total of 12 miles.  The weather was iffy, but we just got sprinkled on a few times.  That and the breeze managed to keep us cool on another hot and humid day.  Despite the forecasts, we have had very little rain and the river was the lowest we had ever seen it.  The wider places were quite shallow and winding through the rocks at the falls was a challenge.

This eagle watched us go by.


We also saw a great blue heron, a couple of families of young ducks, and some young mergansers.

Paddling Tupper Lake

We had a nice paddle on Tupper Lake this morning.  High-ish winds were forecast, so we spent most of our time around the edges and hiding behind islands.  We put in at Moody boat launch and went along the south-eastern shore to Blue Jay camp.  Then we went across to Bluff Island.  There is a neat sculpture/faucet up on the bluff on the west side of the island.  The owners were around so they turned on the water for us.  Pretty cool.  I'm sure we have paddled right past it and never knew it was there.




We went between Burnt and Birch Islands then over to the western shore, around Watch Island, then headed back to Moody.  We stopped at our leader's house for lunch.

Paddling Round Lake

The weather forecast today was for 80 degrees and light and variable winds.  We try to get on the water whenever the winds are low, but since we are going out this evening we wanted a shortish paddle.  So we drove to Round Lake, where we hadn't paddled for several years.  Our memory of the lake was clearly not very accurate since our "short" paddle ended up being 8 miles long, and we didn't follow the shoreline all the way, which would have made it longer.  This green frog greeted us at the put-in.

The water lilies were beautiful.




Even though it is a Sunday, we didn't see many other boats.  We stopped at campsite #8 for a snack.

Paddling the Oswegatchie River

Today we led a paddle on the Oswegatchie River, from Inlet to High Rock and back, for a total of seven miles.  Since it had been several years since we last did it, we drove to the put-in a few days before so we could send out the following directions:
Drive west on Route 3 to Sunny Lake Road - on the left 2.9 miles past the road to the Wanakena Ranger School.  Sunny Lake Road is also about 10 miles past the western age of Cranberry Lake, where the speed goes back up to 55 MPH.  There is a sign for Oswegatchie River access.  Once you turn into Sunny Lake Road take an immediate left instead of going straight.  Drive 3 miles down the well-maintained dirt road to the parking lot, just past the footbridge over the river.

We paddled to High Rock but did not stop there.  It has been marked as a campsite and there were several canoes at the take out.  We headed a short way back downstream and stopped at campsite #42 for lunch.  It has a much better landing spot and is a better place to swim.

It was a beautiful day and a great paddle.  The water levels everywhere are much lower than they were last year and the current was pretty fast, so there was not an opportunity to get out the camera and take pictures.

After the paddle most folks came to our house for snacks.  It was a very nice day.

Paddling the Raquette River from the Flow to Raquette Pond

Since it is a weekend, we looked for somewhere to paddle that wouldn't be too crowded.  We decided to put in from camp, portage around the dam, and head into Raquette Pond.  We weren't sure how far we would go - a lot depended on the winds.  We stopped for lunch just at the point where public lands begin, opposite the town of Tupper Lake, and the winds picked up enough after that that we decided not to venture out any farther.  But we still managed to paddle six miles round trip.

Paddling the Flow

We spent the morning circumnavigating the Flow.  I found rose pogonia orchids for the first time here.




And LOTS of sundew.


We also saw an osprey and a loon with a chick.

Paddling Indian Lake

We had another beautiful, but windy, day today.  We joined our friends for a paddle on Indian Lake.  The paddle was shortened due to high winds, so we only paddled 5 miles, but given the effort required it may as well have been 10 miles.  We paddled down the eastern shore to Norman's Cove where we took a break from the wind, which had been at our backs.  Then we struggled across the lake to the more protected shore to make our way back to our friends' camp.  We had a nice visit over snacks so it was worth the trip, but I'm not sure I will paddle there again if the winds are forecast to be over 10 mph.

Summer Solstice Celebration

The Northwoods chapter of ADK held a BBQ in celebration of the summer solstice today.  It was at campsite #62 on Second Pond.  Since we had to use the boats to get to the campsite, we put in at the boat launch a couple of hours early so we could do some paddling first.  There were lots of motor boats heading into Lower Saranac Lake from the launch, so we headed the other direction down the Saranac River toward the locks.




We also explored quite a way down Cold Brook until downed trees blocked our way.


We paddled about 5.5 miles before returning to the picnic.  The weather was fantastic, with enough wind to keep away the bugs.

Paddling Forked Lake

We drove back north from NJ yesterday. Today, we had a great paddle on Forked Lake.  The weather was fantastic and there weren't many bugs.

We put in at the campground and paddled along the south shore and down the Raquette River until we encountered too many rocks to proceed.  Then we came back out of the river and headed west to the end of the carry from Raquette Lake where we ate lunch on the dock.  Then some of us continued west to the end of the lake and headed up the Brandreth Lake outlet.

We weren't able to go very far, not due to beavers - the water was still quite deep - but because some folks stayed at the dock and since this was an ADK paddle, we felt we needed to go back to join them.  But I'd love to go back and see how far up the outlet one can paddle.  By the time we returned to our cars we had paddled a total of 14 miles!!

Memorial Day

We did the traditional Memorial Day paddle then picnic with our friends today.  The paddle was on Deer River Flow.  Despite an iffy weather forecast, the weather was beautiful all day.  The Flow is a pretty place to paddle, but not very large.

We paddled to the dam where we took out for an early lunch.  The river beyond the dam is very picturesque.

Then we returned to the put-in where someone decided the beavers also need access to TV.